“Good point,” she said, tying her sneakers. “When everything happened with Lexie, I made sure I paid extra attention in school and got all her homework ready for her so when she came back, she wouldn’t miss a beat. I was going to tutor her, but then…it didn’t happen. But I got really good grades.”
I gave her a little smile and put my other boot on, swearing a little when the zipper got stuck.
Lottie’s phone buzzed as she was putting her coat on.
“Oh, crap.” She put her hand to her mouth and dropped her backpack. “Oh no.”
“What?” I started shoving books into my messenger bag. I was going to have to get a new one soon, because the strap was about to go.
“I texted Trish to invite her to breakfast, but she just messaged me back saying that her friend Ric was in an accident last night.” The name made me snap my head up and look at her.
“Ric? What happened?”
“Hold on, I’m calling her.” She held the phone up to her ear and bit her thumbnail.
“Trish, what happened?” Pause. “Oh my God. I am so sorry. Do you need anything? No. No. Okay. Call me later, okay?” She hung up and I waited for the verdict, knowing all the while what it was and hoping that it wasn’t. Lottie took a long deep breath before she spoke in a small voice that I’d never heard her use.
“She was killed. I guess she was driving home early this morning and she went off the road and hit a tree.” She sat down on her bed. I had to sit down too. Yes, I’d only met the girl a couple times, and she had been a bitch, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to die. I didn’t want anyone to die, not even Zack, although I’d thought I’d wanted that, before everything with Dad. Seeing death up close made me realize it wasn’t a thing you wished on anyone.
Lottie stared straight ahead. “I feel like I should do something, but I don’t know what. Trish was an absolute wreck. I’ve never heard her cry before.” I didn’t know Trish and Ric were close; Stryker had never mentioned anything.
Stryker.
“Did she say anything about Stryker? Is he with her?” I said. Lottie shook her head, still in a daze.
“I’m going to call him.” I went outside so I could have some privacy and ran into Will, Simon and Zan coming to get us.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Will said. In another lifetime I would have totally gone for him. In fact, when I first met him, I’d totally pegged him as a potential rebound boyfriend. Now I couldn’t imagine it.
“Um, one of Trish’s friends was in an accident this morning and she was killed. Lottie’s a bit out of it, um, understandably. You might want to go check on her. I’m going to call Stryker.”
The boys all went in to take care of Lottie and I called Stryker, going to the very end of the hall where there was a little alcove. The phone rang a bunch of times before he picked up.
“Hey, I just heard about Ric. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Oh, there was that word again. I’d never heard him use it, though.
“Yeah, I don’t believe that. She was your friend too. Where are you?”
“Home.” His voice was tight, like he was holding back. Leave it to Stryker to be one of those guys that turned into a freaking clam when they were suffering from grief. He’d been so open and supportive when I’d been going through it, always trying to get me to talk about it. I was going to do the same for him.
I started walking back toward my room to get my car keys. “I’m coming over.”
“No, no. You have to get back to class. I said, I’m fine.” He dropped something on the other end and swore.
“Fuck you, you’re not fine. Don’t you even dare use that word with me, Stryker Grant. I know exactly what it means.”
“Katherine, I said I’m fine. Just go to class. I just need you to go to class, okay? Please.” His voice cracked, and my heart cracked a little at the same time hearing it.
“Stryker.”
“I love you. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“I love you, but—”
He hung up before I could say anything else. Dick Stryker had returned, only this time he had a side of Damaged. Simon came out of our room just as I was